Superconformal symmetry and higher-derivative Lagrangians

Abstract: Superconformal methods are useful to build invariant actions in supergravity. We have a good insight in the possibilities of actions that are at most quadratic in spacetime derivatives, but insight in general higher-derivative actions is missing. Recently higher-derivative actions got more attention for several applications. One of these is the understanding of finiteness of loop computations in supergravities. Divergences can only occur if invariant counterterms or anomalies exist. One can wonder whether conformal symmetry might also play a role in this context. In order to construct higher-derivative supergravities with the conformal methods, one should first get more insight in such rigid supersymmetric actions with extra fermionic symmetries. We show how Dirac--Born--Infeld actions with Volkov--Akulov supersymmetries can be constructed in all orders.